Israel appoints new envoy

ISRAEL has appointed a new ambassador to Australia.

Senior foreign affairs official Shmuel Ben-Shmuel will take up his post in August 2013. The incoming envoy will succeed Yuval Rotem, who has been Israel’s representative in Canberra since July 2007.

Ben-Shmuel has served as head of the World Jewish Affairs and Inter-Religious Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Ministry for the past six years, where he has been involved in strengthening Israel’s relationship with world Jewry and combating anti-Semitism and the delegitimisation of Israel.

Born in Tel Aviv in 1951, he served as a paratrooper in the Israel Defence Forces and took part in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War. After being discharged from the army, he earned a BA in political science from Tel Aviv University.

In 1981, he joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry and served in various posts, including political counsellor in Israel’s embassy in South Africa, deputy consul-general in New York and consul-general in Atlanta and Houston.

Last December, he  addressed the Executive Council of Australian  Jewry’s (ECAJ) annual conference. Describing him as “highly professional, experienced and knowledgable”, ECAJ president Dr Danny Lamm said, “We look forward to working together, as we have worked in the closest cooperation with his predecessors in the past.”

Echoing the sentiment, Zionist Federation of Australia president Philip Chester said, “We have every confidence that Shmuel Ben-Shmuel will continue the exceptional work which is being undertaken by Yuval Rotem, in his very successful term as Israel’s ambassador to Australia.”

AJN STAFF